ARC Review of The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa

★★★★★ - This thing is heaven in book form.

The Lost Prince
By: Julie Kagawa
Review by: Kaede

Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Pages: 379
Star Rating: ★★★★★/ Go out and buy it now.
Release Date: October 23rd 2012


Don’t look at Them. Never let Them know you can see Them.

That is Ethan Chase’s unbreakable rule. Until the fey he avoids at all costs—including his reputation—begin to disappear, and Ethan is attacked. Now he must change the rules to protect his family. To save a girl he never thought he’s dare to fall for.

Ethan thought he had protected himself from his older sister’s world—the land of Faery. His previous time in the Iron Realm left him with nothing but fear and disgust for the world Meghan Chase has made her home, a land of myths and talking cats, of magic and seductive enemies. But when destiny comes for Ethan, there is no escape from a danger long, long forgotten.

My name is Ethan Chase. And I may not live to see my eighteenth birthday.

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"For something to be given, something must be taken."

For me, the original Iron Fey series is irreplaceable. Try if you will. You can shower me with classics or dozens and dozens of newly released YA titles, but you won't be able to divert my attention should I be in the process of re-reading one of the Iron Fey books. They are my darlings. So when details surrounding The Lost Prince was up for the public, I was nothing if not skeptical. Spin-offs usually don't end well with me. If anything, they typically end up ruining the original story and the characters I'd come to love in it. But then I actually read this jem of a book. And while I still lived for the moments where Ash, Meghan, Puck, and Grimalkin showed up, Ethan Chase's tale is a story in it's own right.

Ethan is no Ash or Puck, but nonetheless, I couldn't help but love him all the same. He's certainly not without his flaws, but they only serve to endear him as a more realistic person. He does complain quite a bit, and often about his sister, but he has a good heart underneath. And for all the negativity he has stored up inside, he has Kenzie to balance him out.

And speaking of Kenzie, she's probably the most bubbly, full of life person I'll ever meet fictionally or even in everyday life. Kenzie is just the kind of person you wouldn't be able to hate. Her kindness, and just the fact that she doesn't back down when she's challenged was more than enough to win me over.

Now let us discuss the new characters that stood out most to me, and the twists and turns.

PRINCE KEIRRAN

In all honesty, Meghan and Ash's son, Keirran, was like a combination of a slightly less witty Puck who had the stubbornness that Ash had when he refused to give up Meghan and return to his rightful place as a Winter Prince. However, he was eventually able to make his place in my heart, if you exclude the ending. He just wasn't the Keirran we meet and love in the first half of the book anymore by then. And the sequel's title. WHYYY? I look forward to seeing Keirran in The Traitor Son. Righttt...yeahhh. *sniff*

THE FORGOTTEN

"We are forgotten. No one remembers our names, that we have existed."

Boy were those things creepy. I really don't see the appeal of them, I really don't. Perhaps that's why no one wanted to remember them. Maybe. I SAID MAYBE. IT WAS JUST A SUGGESTION SO DON'T KILL ME YOU CREEPY FEY.

I think that's just about it. Anymore and I'll just give in to the temptation of erasing everything I've written up to this point and just scream, "READDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD THISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! THIS THING IS HEAVEN!"

Mhm hmm. I tend to gush when I like things. You musn't judge me. The Lost Prince is enchanting and beautiful, romantic, yet still full of action. It has something for everyone. Pre-order your copy now. Mine is already on the way. Cheers.
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Review also found at: Goodreads

Contact Kaede: kimberlyho75@yahoo.com

Stacking the Shelves (2)

 Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted at Tynga's Reviews. It's pretty damn awesome.

This week we got quite a few books, so try not to fall asleep.

Sarah:

Books:

Eon by Alison Goodman

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Dare Me by Megan Abbott

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Between You & Me by Marisa Calin

 ARCS:

 The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

Kaede:

BOOKS

 

The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11...

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12...

CLASSICS: 

(They were free. And no one expects to resist free books, do they? >:DDD) 

Persuasion by Jane Austen - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21...

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18...

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14...

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (audio) - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45...

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34...

ARCS:

Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson (and of course, his ghostwriter: Maxine Paetro) - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...

NETGALLEY:

The Archived by Victoria Schwab - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10...

Prototype 2 by Dan Jolley - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14...

Izzy:

Basically, I'm a total recluse and didn't leave the house. Therefore, I only got books in the mail this week. Happy times!

WON:

A Need So Beautiful by Suzanne Young (#1)

A Want So Wicked by Suzanne Young (#2)

Thank you to Lizzy Lessard from Lizzy's Dark Fiction!

PS- They were signed copies, too!

 

ARC of Erasing Time by CJ Hill

Thank you to Epic Reads! (They totally don't email you if you win- I had NO idea this was coming.)

A signed bookmark from Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger.

For Review:

The rainbow isn't randomly photoshopped. That's just the sheen, which is freaking amazing.

Finished copy of The White Forest by Adam McOmber

200 Follower Giveaway- An ARC of Poison Princess

So on my last giveaway, I said that if you guys got me to 200 followers by the end of the giveaway, I'd hold a contest for my ARC of Poison Princess.

WELL...

You guys are ridiculous. It's only been a week, and you got me 200 FOLLOWERS!

Which isn't a lot, but still. I think it's pretty awesome.

Anyway, you probably scrolled down to just get to the giveaway, so...

I'm giving away this:




Hehe, pretty awesome, eh?

This is US only, as I don't want to go broke.

HOWEVER- If you're international and you win, I'll give you a pre-order of Poison Princess!

So, to recap- If you live in the US, you can either pick the ARC, or the pre-order.

If you're international, you get the pre-order, as long as the Book Depository ships to your country.

Cool? Cool.

Enter away!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


And don't forget to enter my other giveaway to win any summer release! (INT) 

Stacking the Shelves (1)

 Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted at Tynga's Reviews. It's pretty damn awesome.

Hey guys! This is Wake Up at Seven's first Stacking the Shelves, so bear with us.

Here's what Kaede got this week:

Bought:

 

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

The Goddess Legacy by Aimee Carter

Nevermore by James Patterson

Manga:

B.O.D.Y., Volume 11 (B.O.D.Y. #11) byAo Mimori

ARCs:

 

In Between Days by Andrew Porter

The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa (NetGalley)

Sarah got:

 

Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

Academy 7 by Anne Osterlund

Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

Sarah is a dirty, diiiirty e-book buyer, so she doesn't have any whimsical pictures to share. But Izzy does!

Library:

The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman

Starters by Lissa Price

Legend by Marie Lu

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma

The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa

The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa

(Those two Iron Fey books are for rereading purposes, so I can read The Lost Prince.)

 

 

Okay, so Meagan Spooner was hosting a contest for her new book, Skylark. Everyone who entered got AT LEAST a postcard. I got my postcard, and I was like, "All right. I guess I didn't win anything."

THE NEXT DAY....

I got an envelope in the mail with a Skylark sticker. Enclosed was a note that said:

This is true. I asked her on Twitter about it, and then she answered.

For you non-believers, here's a screenshot:

SOOOOO... she sent me a bunch of stuff! Just goes to show that being nice can get you very far.

Here it is, placed in its temporary home next to my Stamp Collection. (For those of you who have seen my Goodreads profile... yeah, I WASN'T KIDDING.)

 

Two signed Skylark bookmarks, two temporary tattoos, and a signed bookplate.

 

Completely separate from that, I also got a signed Remembrance jumbo bookmark. :)

Finally, I got an ARC copy of Secret Letters by Leah Scheier from Jen's ARCycling program. Click the link if you're curious. And hopefully you'll donate to her program? :)

So that's all for us this week. Make sure you leave a link to yours down below so we can visit you!

And of course, don't forget to enter our end of summer giveaway. :) 

ARCs I'd Sock the Pope for... Part Two

The other day, I posted about ARCs that I'm pretty much dying for. Well, I really can't limit it to just 5, so here's part two. Here's the intro from the other post:

Ignore the title. I like the Pope a lot.

So there are just a few things on my wishlist that I need, like NOW. I know a lot of other people have made posts on this, so I decided to join the frenzy and provide me Matt Lauer style commentary. (AKA- It sucks and is totally unnecessary and contrived.)

NONE of these are sequels, because I hate reading sequels. It feels like too much work.

5. The Raven Boys

 

Title: The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1)
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Release Date: September 18th, 2012
Publisher: Scholastic Press

“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

I wasn't a huge fan of Shiver by Maggie Steifvater, but I cannot deny that she writes so heart-achingly beautifully. In that vein, I'm very excited to see a new venture in fantasy.

4. Mystic City

 

Title: Mystic City (Mystic City #1)
Author: Theo Lawrence
Release Date: October 9th, 2012
Publisher: Random House Children's

For fans of Matched, The Hunger Games, X-Men, and Blade Runner comes a tale of a magical city divided. A political rebellion ignited. A love that was meant to last forever.

Aria Rose, youngest scion of one of Mystic City's two ruling rival families, finds herself betrothed to Thomas Foster, the son of her parents' sworn enemies. The union of the two will end the generations-long political feud—and unite all those living in the Aeries, the privileged upper reaches of the city, against the banished mystics who dwell below in the Depths. But Aria doesn't remember falling in love with Thomas; in fact, she wakes one day with huge gaps in her memory. And she can't conceive why her parents would have agreed to unite with the Fosters in the first place. Only when Aria meets Hunter, a gorgeous rebel mystic from the Depths, does she start to have glimmers of recollection—and to understand that he holds the key to unlocking her past. The choices she makes can save or doom the city—including herself.

I'll admit that this really doesn't sound all that exciting. However, I actually HAVE an e-arc of this (and I didn't even sock the Pope!) and I've read the first chapter and I'm quite excited. I'd love to get my grubby hands on a physical copy of this.

3. Renegade

Title: Renegade (Elysium-Chronicles #1)
Author: J.A. Souders
Release Date: November 13th, 2012
Publisher: Tor Teen

Since the age of three, sixteen-year-old Evelyn Winters has been trained to be Daughter of the People in the underwater utopia known as Elysium. Selected from hundreds of children for her ideal genes all her life she’s thought that everything was perfect; her world. Her people. The Law.

But when Gavin Hunter, a Surface Dweller, accidentally stumbles into their secluded little world, she’s forced to come to a startling realization: everything she knows is a lie. Her memories have been altered. Her mind and body aren’t under her own control. And the person she knows as Mother is a monster.

Together with Gavin she plans her escape, only to learn that her own mind is a ticking time bomb... and Mother has one last secret that will destroy them all.

I'm familiar with underwater utopias. (*cough* Bioshock *cough*). I'm also familiar with futuristic utopia literature. I'm participating on the blog tour for this, so I'm interested in seeing how this turns out.

2. Mind Games

Title: Mind Games (Mind Games #1)
Author: Kiersten White
Release Date: February 19th, 2013
Publisher: HarperTEEN

Fia was born with flawless instincts. Her first impulse, her gut feeling, is always exactly right. Her sister, Annie, is blind to the world around her—except when her mind is gripped by strange visions of the future.

Trapped in a school that uses girls with extraordinary powers as tools for corporate espionage, Annie and Fia are forced to choose over and over between using their abilities in twisted, unthinkable ways…or risking each other’s lives by refusing to obey.

In a stunning departure from her New York Times bestselling Paranormalcy trilogy, Kiersten White delivers a slick, edgy, heartstoppingly intense psychological thriller about two sisters determined to protect each other—no matter the cost.

Two words: Cov and er.

1. The Archived

Title: The Archived (The Archived #1)
Author: Victoria Schwab
Release Date: January 22nd, 2013
Publisher: Hyperion

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often-violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn't just dangerous—it's a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da's death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.

If this author is as awesome at writing as she is on Twitter, then I think I won't have any trouble loving this book.